Exploring and playing

We took off to post and did some exploring there and around the area this afternoon. Right off of our street we found this huuuuge park! It has a rec center, aerobics and weight rooms, track, football and baseball fields, and a public pool that will be open by the end of this month! How fantastic is it to have these resources so close to us? The search for a pool to take the kids to this summer is over!

There are beautiful magnolia trees everywhere! This picture doesn't do them justice.

Giant Mayfield cow outside the commissary.

Bus stop

One of the beautiful post chapels.

Ginormous house on post, just beautiful.

Some of the housing on post.

Horse x-ing at the hunt club.

Horses!

Jason stopped by the barber shop to get a trim. The boys were ever so patient...

At least they were when the nice barber gave them suckers.

The moving and adjusting has been hard on James. He's throwing more screaming tantrums and wetting the bed, which he hadn't done in a long time. Bedtime has been a big issue lately, where he screams and refuses to get into bed and keeps Riley up. I'm trying to make a point of it to spend more fun time with him. We all had a few rounds of duck-duck-goose to get everybody's energy spent before stories tonight.

Tickle fight! [please excuse the chaos! we're totally working on the kids' room tomorrow!]

Whenever I have the camera out, Riley starts saying "Cheese!" and gets right up in the lens.

James looks so much like Jason, it's scary!

What happened to my baby? When did he become this little grown-up kid?

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas out there! Make sure you go out and give your own mamas and grannies a hug a kiss or a phone call.

First, I want to celebrate all the great moms in my life. This is my mom with the grandbabies. She's been a fantastic mother to my sister and me and a wonderful grandmother to my boys. She's always baking the best cookies, sewing clothes and quilts, taking the boys to play in the mud puddles and dirt, snagging the best flea market and quilt show finds, and she's probably the sweetest, most polite person you'll ever meet. I love you mom!

Here is my [more] mom [than] in law, coloring with James. She raised 3 boys, dealt with the Army, went on to finish her degree (and get her Masters!), and does everything stylishly! She's a fantastic role model, a great source to go to when I have a question or need to vent, and she always blooms where she is planted. I love you, mom!
This is my Granny. She knows everybody and everything about everybody. She never meets a stranger! She's always taking the grandkids and great-grandkids to ballgames and Chuck-e-Cheese and out for hamburgers. She can make a holiday out of any day and will send presents for them all. She's always mailing me articles from the paper when my friends get married and coupons for diapers. You know that she loves her grandchildren and dotes on them every chance she gets. Breakfast at her house on Christmas and New Years are the best parts of the holidays. I love you, Granny!

And last, but not least, this is Nanny with Jason. Nanny is probably the cheeriest person in the world. I've never seen her without a smile on her face. Like Granny, she's never met a stranger, and when the two of them get on the phone they talk like they've been friends forever, even though they've never met in person! She's a wonderfully sweet, generous person who loves her grandchildren and great-grandbabies. She's always there to help out when anyone needs it, and makes sure we can fly down to see everybody when Jason's on leave. She's always out and about and says the funniest things. She definitely spreads the cheer wherever she goes. I love you, Nanny!

And here I am with the boys, today. I got some beautiful lillies and a barnes and nobles card from them (and Jason!).

We went out shopping today, to celebrate. We intended to go out to eat, but stopped at Sonic instead because the boys were cranky and every nice restaurant had a mile-long line. I'm so excited to get my cherry limeade fix! (we didn't have sonic, or anything really, in NY)

I stopped at Old Navy to hit up their shorts sale, for our upcoming beach vacation and ended up finding a cute pair of white cuffed shorts and a swimsuit too (even though I vowed not to buy anymore this summer...oops!).

We stopped at the Marble Slab Creamery and grabbed some ice cream after shopping and brought home two wiped out boys (after a few temper tantrums--wouldn't be mother's day without them, right?).

Today is a good reminder to count my blessings. I'm blessed with two beautiful, smart, clever little boys that bring joy to my life every day. Even the tantrums, the mischief, the stains, the messes. It all makes up the big picture. I'm blessed with fantastic moms and grandmothers who have all been a guiding light for me. I couldn't do any of this without them.

Happy Mother's Day, ya'll!

First trip on Fort Benning

We ventured onto post for the first time today. It was HUUUUGE! It's really pretty out there, minus all the construction. It's definitely going to take some getting used to, to figure out how to find my way around. We found the PX/Commissary no problem and stopped for a bite to eat and to pick up a few things. The hospital was close by so we asked around and found the Tricare building and got me and the kids set up with our new doctors. I hope I like them! It's kind of a coin-toss when you go with military providers, but I guess it's the same way with civilians.

Afterward we just drove around forever trying to tour the place. We found the Armor school--where Jason is supposed to go after OCS.

James loves the tanks and pointed them all out.

It's hard to see, but the water tower says "Fort Benning Home of Armor and Calvary".

I'm so glad we finally found OCS headquarters! We drove in circles trying to find it. Jason lit up when we got there and saw the sign and everyone in their black ascots. It makes it more real now.

It's so exciting, after all this time and hard work, he's finally here--we're finally here. In just a short month or so, he'll be wearing his own ascot. I'm so proud of my husband! He'll be a fantastic leader.

Everyone on post from the staff to the people shopping and waiting around us, was so friendly and personable. There's a starbucks around every corner, the weather is sunny, the boxes are slowly dwindling down--things are going great. Tomorrow I'm going to get the dogs registered with the vet, get the house a little more organized, and maybe sign us up for the gym and start calling pre-schools.

Sneak peek of the house!

At everyone's request, here are a few pictures of the house!

Big backyard for the kids and dogs.

Screened-in porch to avoid all the bugs :)

Have I mentioned how much we love this house?? Pictures of the inside to come after we get things a little more settled!

Moving week

It has been a long, long week. Monday we picked up the truck from Budget and 7 or 8 of Jay's soldiers came by to help load it. I was feeling really good about it because they got most of the boxes and big furniture packed by the end of the day. That evening my friend Jenn and I went out to the opening night of Olive Garden. The next day Jay brought me to look at the truck--there was NO room left and we still hadn't loaded some of the garage and the couch, bed, and some other stuff. We debated over what to do and decided to get a U-haul trailer to hitch onto the truck. I was already really nervous about Jason driving that huge truck all the way down to Georgia, so this made it that much worse. Luckily, Uhaul had a trailer ready for us Wednesday morning, so Jason left to drop off a bunch of trash using the truck before picking it up. While he was at the recycling center, the truck broke down. The Budget guys came out and said the starter was broken so they would bring out a new truck. They dropped the new truck off an hour later and told Jason to call when he was done loading everything into it. He asked if they were going to help, and they said they couldn't because no one else was at their office. I called customer service to tell them to take responsibility for their mistake and send someone out to help him load it. The customer service rep said we had to call roadside assistance, so we did and they "sent someone out" and would "call when they got closer to get the exact location". Nothing. All day. Not a phone call, no one showed up, nothing! It was awful. Poor Jason had to load everything by himself that had taken him and 7+ people two days to load! Fortunately his soldiers showed up to help when they got off work to help him with the last half of the load. My friend, Tara came and helped me with the cleaning and last bit of packing that night. Thank God for good friends and those soldiers!

We both ended up spending that last night loading the truck and trailer and cleaning the house til 2:30 in the morning and got up again at 6am to finish. Our final walk-through appointment was at 11am on Thursday and we finished just in time. By the time we drove away, we were so exhausted! Here's Fort Drum (and Jason in the truck) in my rear view mirror!

It was still too early to check into our hotel and we were all starving, so we stopped at Cracker Barrel for celebratory pancakes.

Looking grungy after cleaning all night and loading the truck in the rain.

We stayed at a local hotel to get a good night's sleep before taking off Friday. Bailey and James snuggled up together in his scooby doo sleeping bag.

Riley thought he wasn't tired at all.

We hit the road Friday morning, a little later than we'd planned, but we made it to almost halfway. We drove around in circles in the middle of nowhere at the end when Jason took the wrong exit (I had mom find a pet-friendly hotel close by), but the kids and dogs were great sports about it. We finally found the inn and grabbed a late dinner at Steak and Shake.

There was a little girl in a high chair at the table next to us and Riley was flirting! They had squealing contests and grinned at each other. It was adorable.

We were worn out after 12 hours on the road, except for Riley. He slept almost the entire drive and refused to sleep in the hotel crib. Both kids, one dog, and Jason and I ended up in that bed. The other dog would have too, but her legs were too short! We got barely any sleep that night.

We headed out the next morning for another long drive. The further south we got, the more things were alive and in bloom. We saw some gorgeous cherry blossoms at this rest stop.

We stayed with my folks Saturday night. The kids and dogs loved getting out of the car and getting to run around. James kept saying he didn't want to go to Georgia, he wanted to stay at Grandma's house. Mom road with me and my dad drove down behind Jason and we all caravan-ed to Georgia on Sunday. After 3 consecutive, looooong days of driving, it felt so good to pull into our new driveway and stay put! Our landlords met us when we got here and walked us through. They were so kind and helpful and had put together a little welcome basket for us. The house is beautiful and the neighborhood is friendly. We got the truck unloaded in one day, even with a late start. I think every one of our neighbors dropped by throughout the day and introduced themselves and welcomed us. Everyone is so nice! I think this is the the friendliest community we've ever lived in! Most of everyone here is retired and has grandkids, so they're older than us. But everyone looks out for everyone else. It's a quiet little cul-de-sac, but we're close enough to everything in town that it's just a short drive.

I'll be posting some pictures of the house soon, but right now everything is all over the place. Right now, we're breathing a huge sigh of relief, relaxing, and saying a prayer of thanks for making it through all the chaos and making it down here safe and sound.